People are more mobile than ever before. The number of cars, trucks, buses, recreational vehicles, and sport utility vehicles (collectively “automobiles”) on the road appears to increase with each passing day. Moreover, the ongoing transportation explosion is not limited to automobiles. A wide variety of different vehicles such as motorcycles, trains, light, medium, and heavy duty trucks, construction equipment, and other transportation devices (collectively “vehicles”) are used to move people and cargo from place to place. While there are many advantages to our increasingly mobile society, there are also costs associated with the explosion in the number and variety of vehicles.
Accidents are one example of such a cost. The vehicle and automobile industry is continually searching for ways to reduce accidents and/or severity of such accidents.